A Colorful Crowd at Sloan-Kettering Gala

ENLARGE

Kelly Pasciucco and Renee Rockefeller in the same fishtail skirt.
Andrew Fitzsimon/PatrickMcMullan.com

By

Marshall Heyman

Updated May 6, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

For people suffering from any kind of benefit fatigue, the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Spring Ball, which took place Wednesday at the Pierre, was a relatively brisk and well-run affair. The program, for instance, noted that Sheryl Crow would perform at 9:15, and, bet your bottom dollar if Ms. Crow didn't get up there with her acoustic guitar right on time.

The evening was sponsored—rather unusually—by a company called Passage to Africa, which curates bespoke safari experiences. Sometimes, said the proprietor, Michael Lorentz, "planning a safari can take a year. Getting the family together can be like herding cats or nailing mercury to a table."

Mr. Lorentz, who lives in Cape Town, explained that his contributions to the evening were about getting the word out on his services to the kind of people who attend a Sloan-Kettering benefit (i.e., the fancy ones). But, in addition, it was "most certainly 80% supporting the cause."

If the theme wasn't really an African one, tablecloths created from material sourced by Tory Burch added to the atmosphere. They were pretty chic and will be sold at the cancer center's thrift shop on the Upper East Side. Many of Ms. Burch's friends supported the evening, including Marjorie Gubelmann, Gigi Mortimer, Rena Sindi, Crystal Lourd and Elizabeth Wiatt. Oh, and Lori Loughlin from "Full House" and Sigourney Weaver from "Avatar" were there.

Some other things learned over the course of the evening:

1. Jil Sander's bright colors must be really, really in right now.

Both Renee Rockefeller, an attorney, and Kelly Pasciucco, the wife of Gerry Pasciucco, the head of AIG Financial Products, showed up in the same neon-orange twill peplum maxi fishtail skirt by Jil Sander. (It retailed for $1,325 on Net-a-Porter, where Ms. Pasciucco said she bought it, but now it appears to be sold out.)

"Kelly and I often have the same taste," Ms. Rockefeller said. "We once showed up at a Christmas party wearing very similar Lanvin."

2. That Ms. Crow has a pretty reasonable sense of humor.

Though a crowd finishing up aromatic herb crusted filet mignon with potato leek gratin might not have been the best group to perform to, Ms. Crow, who appeared to be wearing the same shoes Victoria Beckham wore to the Royal Wedding, took it in stride.

"I got to have dinner with Lyor Cohen tonight," Ms. Crow said, referring to Ms. Burch's paramour, an executive at Warner Music Group. (Ms. Burch said she'd been "calling Sheryl for five years to perform" at this benefit. "She didn't want to get any more calls from me.") "And I got to announce I'm without a record label. So now I'm auditioning for him."

Ms. Crow also explained that she was five years cancer-free, and thankfully she hadn't had to have a mastectomy. "In my industry you need to have your breasts intact," she said.

3. That the Prince Charles Trust weekend trip involving a visit to Buckingham Palace isn't the high-society affair it used to be.

"Have you ever been on that trip?" Dana Stubgen asked Carol Mack over dinner.

"Yes," Ms. Mack said. "The last time I went there was a woman wearing an American flag ball gown."

"Have you ever been?" Ms. Stubgen asked the furrier Dennis Basso.

"No, but it sounds like fun," Mr. Basso said.

"I wanted to take my 10-year-old daughter to London, but I don't imagine they'd let her go to all of it, so the point is moot anyway," Ms. Stubgen said. "My family was friends with Prince Charles but I can't see calling him up and saying 'We're here' either."

4. That you'd never believe it, but, when there's a DJ, people really like to dance at these things.

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